


amadare/namida (raindrops/teardrops)

by chibikaie



Category: Voltron: Lion Force (1984)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25121674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibikaie/pseuds/chibikaie
Summary: When Keith goes out in the rain, it's hard to tell if he's crying.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	1. Pidge

**Author's Note:**

> Lyric snippets from [Namida wa Shitte iru](http://www.animelyrics.com/jpop/suzukaze/rktears.htm).

kimi ni furuame mo tomorarenai yo  
(can't even keep the rain from falling on you)

I was treated, rather surprisingly, to a view of Keith taking a flying leap off the scaffolding lined up around the Black Lion. For a split second I just stared. I had to ward off a strong urge to wipe my glasses and see if that made the world make more sense. I mean, this was Keith we were talking about: stoic, on the shy side, and devastatingly prudent. That scaffolding had a built-in ladder for a reason - jumping from that height wasn't quite a death plunge, but definitely a good way to break a few bones. I couldn't believe he would be so reckless.

By the time I had picked my scattered wits up off the floor, he was nearly on top of me, just short of standing on my toes. His face was bloodlessly pale. "Pidge," he said, breathing evenly despite the wildness in his eyes, "would you please repeat that?"

I stared up at him, at this feral doppelganger that had taken our leader's place. In the background, I could see Hunk clambering down to join us, but he was far enough away that I wasn't going to count on him for backup. "I said, there's a call for you from a guy, says his name is Victor Lombard."

"Vic?" he echoed, and suddenly he was Keith again, not some frightening - or frightened? - beast. "Vic's alive?"

"Yes, he's alive. Go talk to him." Silently, I willed him to get himself together and just go. I needed him out of my personal space if I wanted to regain any kind of equilibrium.

He blinked, shook his head violently, then bolted out of the repair bay, without another word.

I breathed a sigh and sagged against the wall. "What the hell was that?" I asked.

Hunk wiped his hands off on a rag. "I was about to ask you the same thing," he said.

Practical, wonderfully practical Hunk. Damn, but I'd thought Keith was the levelheaded one of us. "So he got a call from somebody named Victor Lombard. No idea who that could be."

"Well, there's an easy way to find out."

"And that would be?" There was no way I was going to verbally ask Keith - not when he'd been acting like that.

"Eavesdropping." With that, Hunk hefted me away from my wall and dragged me along to the communications center.

We picked up Lance on the way; he always wanted in on whatever dirt there was on our chief, not that there's much to be found. Allura was already there, peeking around the half-open door.

She saw us and beckoned, so we all lined up along the door. I thought about reminding Keith to close doors behind him if he wanted to have private conversations in the future, but - Hunk did have a point. Keith never volunteered anything about himself, so eavesdropping was basically the only way we ever learned anything personal about him.

"Captain?"

It sounded like Keith's voice, but it was so timid! Intimidated, even.

"Hey there," a static-blurred voice replied. I ground my teeth; we hadn't managed to get a good setup for really long range calls. We always needed the parts or the time to fix up something else. This was the first time I was regretting it, though; I couldn't recognize the voice. It was deep, though, probably an older man. "How's my little tiger?" he continued.

There was silence. Lance, Hunk and I all traded incredulous looks. I couldn't tell what stunned them more - "little" or "tiger". While Keith wasn't all that tall, he had enough of a command presence that no one ever thought about calling him short. As for the tiger moniker, well, he routinely mopped the floor with any and all opponents, but his fighting style was all controlled, understated grace.

Keith gulped audibly. "Captain, is that really you?"

"Sure, it's me. Now, come on, what's wrong? You're shaking."

"I thought," Keith said, with a catch in his throat, "that you were dead. The last I heard, your whole troop had vanished."

"Oh, that. We got back all right, Tiger. You ought to have more faith in me - it'll take more than a few months in enemy territory to take us down."

"A few months? But then - "

"All right, more like a year. But we got back almost two years ago. How come you didn't hear? HQ made a big deal 'bout it."

Thinking back a little, I realized that two years dated right back to when we'd gotten sent out here. Arus was basically on the edge of nowhere. We'd had a field day before we could get more than emergency communications through. That meant ....

"I wasn't told anything, Captain."

I cringed. I wanted to push the door all the way open and give Keith a hug, chief or not. He sounded like a kid whose pet had just been run over. And I could tell what was coming next, but a freighter couldn't stop it any more than I could.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Keith whispered.

I winced. I knew Hunk was wincing. I'd bet everybody was mentally saying "ouch" or some equivalent.

The man, Victor, coughed. "Sorry, Tiger. I mean, first I just assumed ... and then I couldn't even find you. You're not listed with us anymore and nobody told me you'd been posted to Voltron, until I ran into Sal."

"Oh." Keith started rubbing his elbow. "Yeah, Hunk keeps in touch. You talked to him?"

"Well, I'm trying to catch up with y'all," Victor said, beaming proudly. "You see, I'm getting married, and I want to invite you to the wedding."

Keith froze. But it was only for a second, maybe two, and then he put a smile back on his face, even if the blood didn't return to his cheeks. "Congratulations, Captain." He pulled it off pretty well; his voice was pleasant, if not particularly warm. He slid his eyes over to the door, and then I knew he knew we'd been watching. "And I would be very pleased to attend your wedding, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to go."

"Come on, I know you've got to have vacation days saved up," he said. "You must, if you haven't been back home in two years."

"I know, but I may not be able to go so far off planet."

"It's that bad?" Victor sounded sympathetic, and I had to give him a few brownie points for that. At least he wasn't completely oblivious. "You have got to learn how to delegate, kid."

"It's complicated," Keith said. "I'll write you if I get permission to leave."

"Write me anyway. Catch me up on your exciting life."

"Of course, Captain."

"Oh, call me Vic, Tiger. I'm not your captain."

"Okay, Vic." He looked at the door, at us, again, and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I left rather abruptly ..."

"Then you're off the hook for now, Tiger. But if I don't hear from you within the week, I'm sending you a mail bomb. I have your address now, you know."

"I know." He smiled, really smiled, and was honestly happy for a moment. "I'm glad you called. It'll be nice talking to you again."

"Later, Little Tiger."  
"Good-bye."

Keith snapped the com off and said sharply, "Don't go anywhere."

I groaned. We were so in for it.

"I'm not sure exactly what you're all thinking, though I can guess. But I'm not going to yell at you. I just want to say that I'd like to be left alone for a while, and I can't do that if I have to chase you all down with a sprained ankle."

I blinked. Several times.

"You're not mad we listened?" Lance demanded. He pushed the door out of the way and pretty much openly gaped at Keith. "You're not going to give us the mile-long speech about privacy?"

Keith raised his eyes from the floor to meet ours. He looked, in a word, awful. "I don't want to talk right now."

I nudged Hunk, and he herded the others away. I stayed for a moment, just long enough to ask, "You are going to get your ankle taken care of, right? You did say it was sprained."

He shrugged. "I know the way to the clinic."

And that was all I was going to get from him. When Keith didn't want to talk, he didn't. I filed a mental note to go digging for one Captain Victor Lombard later, preferably when Keith was away from the castle and unable to catch me at it.


	2. Hunk

mizu no tsumetasa ni odoroku toki no you ni  
when the touch of cold water surprises you

I had to scratch my head when Keith showed up to repair duty in ripped jeans and a checkered plaid that would have done a lumberjack proud. "That's a new look for you. Don't think I remember the last time I saw you in civvies, chief."

He blinked owlishly back at me. "Hunk, I'm pretty sure I _met_ you wearing these clothes."

"Okay, time out, no. I do not recall you ever wearing anything like that." I was no fashion guru, but the red and violet checks were just garish enough that I was certain I would have remembered it. On top of that, he was always fastidious and at the very least, would have patched the holes in his jeans. "Also, you've known my brother for, what, six years? How do you even remember what you were wearing the first time he cajoled you into coming over after class?"

Keith opened his mouth, gaped for a moment, then shut it with an audible clack of teeth and bent to fuss with a tool box. "I remember because I fell in a ditch," he said slowly, sounding bewildered. "That's where the big rip in the knee came from."

"Wait, you fell in a ditch?" It was my turn to be shocked. "The graceful, impeccably coordinated Keith fell in a _ditch?_ Was it covered in camouflage like a snare trap or something?"

Said graceful and coordinated man sputtered and proceeded to limp, lopsided with the weight of the tools, toward the Black Lion. "So I was a little clumsy when I was a teenager."

His ears, or what I could see of them around his hair, were bright red. "Aw, chief, are you blushing?"

"I am not."

I chuckled, but didn't refute him out loud. "Well, ditch aside, I still do not remember seeing you before you and Sal became friends."

Keith folded his arms. "You had just beaten my sister in a bike race. I was impressed, okay? I was watching you and not where I was going. And then all of a sudden, I was face down on the ground with blood everywhere."

"That's ringing a bell, actually. Hm, I remember the paramedics were really amused that it wasn't one of us bikers that got hurt. Rei wanted to ship the kid straight to ER - Hey!" It was as if puzzle pieces that had been sliding over each other suddenly snapped into place. I did a double take. _"You're_ Rei's accident prone kid brother!"

He turned away. "Yeah."

I clamped my mouth shut so I wouldn't blurt out, _That scrawny little guy was you?_ but it was a close call. Instead, I managed to say, "My bad. I never made the connection."

"Can't blame you. We never talked." He still wouldn't look at me directly. To be brutally honest, we hadn't been more than passing acquaintances before Voltron. He continued dully, "I don't think most of my sister's friends even knew my name."

Not knowing what to say to that, I said, "Well - that was our loss, right?" I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "Really. You're a great guy. I'm glad we're friends now."

He ducked his head, and I swear he blushed harder. "S-same to you."

I figured that was enough awkwardness for the morning. "Well! Let's get to work. The sooner we're done, the sooner we can rustle up a couple bikes and have a race for old time's sake!"

"Hunk." Keith's voice was faint and strained. "I don't actually know how to ride a motorcycle."

I definitely did not know how to respond to that. Rei was one of those hardcore bikers - it was rumored she'd broken up with a guy once when he'd complained that she loved her bike more than him. The idea that her brother hadn't at least learned how to ride was unfathomable.

Very timidly, Keith asked, "Maybe ... I could ride with you? Some time?" He finally met my eyes, peering up through his eyelashes. He looked like a forlorn little kitten.

Naturally, I caved immediately. "Sure thing, Keith. Any time you want."

The smile I got in return was tiny, but so worth it.


End file.
